Archive | Greatest Hits

This conversation took place with a Japanese friend at a cafe in Yokohama: Me: …I thought it was a very interesting article! What do you think? Yoko: Of what? Me: His argument that both Gaikokujin and Gaijin essentially mean the same thing: Not so much foreigner, but not-Japanese. Yoko: You think so? Me: Well, yeah, […]

Sorry ***Off topic Post*** but I have to take a pause for the cause cuz I just love this guy! Actually this letter went out to all his admirers (and probably a few enemies too), and here it is: Sell! Buy! Rebel! ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ Is Out Today on DVD (…and what is up […]

Seems like only weeks ago I was looking at 100000 and now I’m looking at 200000! If averages hold true it’ll happen today or tomorrow. It’s really overwhelming to me and once again I want to thank all of my readers and followers for their continuing and enthusiastic support of loco in Yokohama. When I […]

Over the course of my past 7 years in Japan (some of which I have spoken the Japanese language) I have found that many of my feelings I just can’t express well in Nihongo. For example, all the feelings I would use “Fuck” to express in English, I simply couldn’t feel with its Japanese counterpart. So I was forced to create my own […]

200 years ago an 8.0 earthquake in Missouri caused the mighty Mississippi River to flow backwards. 200 months ago the number one movie was about a weatherman who found himself living the same day over and over. 200 weeks ago I moved from the wasteland of Saitama Japan to the greener pastures of Yokohama,,,the grass […]

Woman walks by a shop window and stops to check herself in her reflection. Amid a few adjustments she notices something in her peripherals. Something startling. She turns her head fully and takes it in. She’s aghast! She turns away quickly and begins to walk faster than before. She glances over her shoulder every 4 […]

“Do you like to make lessons for our classes?” I asked Yoshida-sensei making sure my smile was intact. She flinched and said, “Unnnn chotto….” (well, kinda, sorta…) which I’ve learned is as strong a “no” as you’re gonna get sometimes in Japan. But I treated it like a half-hearted yes. “Well,” I said, keeping upbeat. “I really like making […]

When I first started working for this company I was told that they hired teachers for Elementary, Junior High and High Schools and was asked which I preferred. I’d told them anything but an Elementary school was ok. I’d had my fill of toddlers and pre-teen kids during my tenure at Nova. So, naturally when I received my first […]

What can I say? It aint all Manzai and Kawaii kids… Yesterday a woman from the Board of Education came to observe me teach. She’s a nice woman, been at her job for a long time. Not Japanese, I don’t think, but she’s been here so long you can hardly tell she’s not from here. […]

Fade in: Sunny morning, Brownstone and tree-lined street in Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn NY. On the corner, a group of 6, sharply dressed men and women are congregated. They are JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES. They huddle momentarily then split into two teams of three. One group crosses the street and, parallel to one another, both groups proceed up the block. At […]